Feb 10, 2020 – Looking for a place to warm your bones in the middle of winter? We wondered if the Dominican Republic might be a good place to do just that, and we’ll be checking it out for the next three weeks.

Where is this place? You may recall that the island of Hispaniola is where Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World in 1492. The D.R. shares the island with Haiti, and is close to Puerto Rico and lots of Caribbean islands that folks fly to for resort vacations. Of course, Jim and I don’t do resorts, so we’ll just see how it goes!

Feb 11 – We came in on a late flight through Atlanta, and arrived at Santo Domingo Airport at almost midnight. Jim had chosen a little hotel in the nearby town of Boca Chica for convenience, and a short Uber ride got us there. Cannot say enough good things about Uber in foreign countries. It is a great equalizer, in that the app can not distinguish if you are a local or a tourist ripe for fleecing. I’m sorry that the drivers don’t make enough. I tip. The 20 minute ride cost less than $5.

The little town of Boca Chica really didn’t have much going on, but we sat on the beach for a bit and got our bearings, while enjoying our first Presidente beer. There was a park with some gnarly old trees.

There was a church, but it was not open.

And some wall art too!

Tomorrow we’ll head into the capital city, Santo Domingo, and see what there is to see.